Drug use is demonized, and the “evil” of drugs is propagandized in the corporate media. This helps to sustain the long-running, selective “drug war” in the United States and elsewhere.

One logical and ethical solution to the prodigious resources devoted to the “drug war” is the recognition of each person’s sovereignty over his own body. Consumption of drugs and whatever else is the decision of adult individuals in reasonable command of their mental faculties. Society (as it is presently constituted, the state) should monopolize drug sales. The state will save money fighting illegal drug sales and assure that unadulterated, untainted drugs are sold. The drugs can be sold with necessary information and warnings (ideally factually accurate information — neither disinformation nor propaganda) about the drugs, so that the individual is fully informed of the potentialities from drug consumption.

Others, however, choose to live by different principles or rules. In most societies, the ruling class arrogates the right to decide what is best for others and enforce this decision. This is the case in the US for drug use – even for the comparatively harmless marijuana plant.

Steve Fox, Paul Armentano, and Mason Tvert approached the right to use marijuana from a different tangent. They argue, in the book Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?, that because it is far safer than alcohol, marijuana for personal use should be legalized.

The study suggests that not only is marijuana safer than alcohol, it may actually protect against some of the damage that booze causes.

A study just published online by the journal Neurotoxicology and Teratology suggests that marijuana may protect the brain from some of the damage caused by binge drinking.

The study, by researchers at the University of California San Diego, used a type of high-tech scan called diffusion tensor imaging to compare microscopic changes in brain white matter.

A hero to potheads across the nation, local marijuana advocate Mason Tvert continues his smokin’ streak with Amazon.com best-selling book “Marijuana is Safer.”

His first book aims to convince supporters and opponents alike that marijuana is a safer recreational alternative to other substances like alcohol.

"Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?” is co-written by fellow pot experts Paul Armentano, deputy director of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, and Steve Fox, director of state campaigns for the Marijuana Policy Project.

Mason Tvert, executive director of SAFER (Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation), which ran a successful 2005 campaign to legalize possession of up to one ounce of marijuana in Denver, has long been the merry prankster of Colorado weed activists -- a prankster who knows how to have serious impact. When photos surfaced of Governor Bill Ritter's son hitting the booze at a governor's mansion party, Tvert and his posse threw a media-grabbing kegger on the mansion lawn to prove the point that the encouragement of alcohol but not pot was a total party foul. He was also responsible for arguably the most successful billboard that never actually existed: In 2005, as part of the Denver pot legalization campaign, SAFER proposed a billboard celebrating Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams, who'd been suspended for marijuana use. The billboard attracted national attention -- even though Tvert never actually put it up.

Thousands of people turned out over the weekend for Seattle's two-day marijuana festival known as Hempfest.

Each year, organizers use clothing and speeches to promote their efforts to get pot legalized, and more families and "mainstream" supporters joined them this time. And this year, organizers have more reason to believe there will soon be a change in marijuana policy.

Supporters, like Hempfest organizer Mason Tvert, have long argued that those under the influence of marijuana are in a much different state than those who use alcohol. "There's no reason why we shouldn't be treating it like alcohol and generating revenue and saving in the criminal justice system."